to avert the fiscal cliff. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, we are here just hours before a looming deadline that is going to affect just about every american in some way, and i do believe that both sides of the aisle and both sides of the rotunda want to come to a conclusion that will keep us from having what looks like a complete meltdown of governing in washington. someone asked the question in one of our conferences when was the last time that congress was in session and voting between christmas and new year's, and the answer was since 1970, there ha not been such a session, and it has actually only happened four times in the history of our country, and two of those times were dealing with world war ii. so i think the enormity of the issue is very clear, and that's why we are here. i think we should have done this six months ago, a year ago. i think all of us agree that we shouldn't be here at this last hour still trying to negotiate a point at which so many americans are going to be me heavily taxed. i was p